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Hi All,
It never rains, but it pours!!!!! all of my alliums,garlic, onions and shallots have been decimated by White rot!!! I am absolutely gutted, this good and friable soil held a dark secret, it is ridden with White rot There were none of the usual signs of the disease above ground. However when lifted the roots and bulbs were a mass of white filaments, I lifted a couple of shallot plants and onions all with good green stems and discovered that they too were infected.

All of the above were planted in the raised beds of my plot. It looks like I will be seeking another move whereby I can continue to experiment. The real problem is people buying garlic and shallots sets from supermarkets to save money and planting these cloves and sets in their plots!!!!!! It is also due in no small
measure to people not using a recognised crop rotation plan!!!!!!

I think that this proves that EM's have no effect on this disease in their natural form, however if they are subjected to the waste produce of alliums and breakdown this waste it may well be beneficial to water this fluid onto infected soil to awaken White rot spores, and there being no allium plants to feed off will hopefully cause the White rot to die.

Most of our supermarket garlic and shallots come from much warmer climates where although white rot is rife within the soil, however it remains dormant during their growing season. This is due to the temperature being constantly above 64 deg F. This the approximate temperature below which white rot will awaken from dormancy. Now when an allium plant sets down roots into the soil infected by white rot at temperatures below 64 deg F it will infect the roots of said plant!!!!

My fear is that we will end up being unable to cultivate alliums in allotments in the UK due to this.

"These supermarket bought Alliums although not affected by White rot are carriers of white rot disease!!!"

The mind is like a parachute its totally useless open